Why a DSL Line:

The first and foremost reason a person would choose a DSL for their internet connection is cost. DSL lines have come down in cost over the years and is now the primary connection type for most residential users. DSL connection speeds are based on the distance your home is from the “central Office”. This is where you local telecom company groups all the phone lines in the area you live. The closer you are to this office, the faster your DSL connection can be. There really isnt any way to get around this limitation, so keep your fingers crossed that you live close to the central office. DSL lines are really not suited for business that have web server or email servers. Most DSL speeds have a limited upload speed. Thats the direction your traffic will be heading if someone wants to view your web site. So if you choose to use a DSL line for a business, you may think about hosting your web site offsite. On the flip side DSL lines are well suited for residential customers. They mainly “download” web pages, and email from other locations. The average download speed for DSL lines is 1.5Mbps. The other issue you should be aware of is repair of a DSL line. DSL lines have a low priority repair with the telecom companies. This means they are not in any hurry to fix your line the same day. They generally fix within a few days, so just be prepared to be without internet if that happens. You want to know why? Its because DSL lines are so cheap. You get what you pay for when it comes to internet connection service. If you require more of a 24/7 service checkout our T1 line services page or our how to connect a T1 page.

Physical Layer: Telephone Jack

The physical layer is the wiring part of a DSL line. In most cases the telecom will wire the DSL line right into your existing inside wiring. The DSL service should come inside you house on one of your telephone jacks, like the one shown to the right. Hopefully you just have one phone number.

Some of people get confused if they have more than one phone line. The easiest way to tell which phone line is on the jack is to call your cell phone from a phone connected to that jack. The called ID on your cell phone should tell you what the number is. If you do this for all phone jacks in the house, you will know which phone number are connected to them.

Equipment: DSL Modem and Filters

Once you have identified which phone jack the service is one we can proceed with connecting and installing the DSL equipment. You will need 4 things to get connected. A DSL modem, DSL filter, phone cord and a ethernet cable. Your DSL modem will look something like the photos to the right. On the back there will be 2 ports for you to plug cables into.
The first port is the DSL port. You plug a regular phone line(grey cable) from the wall jack and plug it into the DSL port. Then you will plug a ethernet cable from your computers ethernet port to the port marked ethernet on the modem. If you originally had a phone connected to this line, you will want to use a DSL filter like the one on the left. It allows you to connect both a phone and a dsl modem. The small end connects to the phone jack on the wall, then connect the dsl modem and phone as labeled on the filter.

PC Configuration: Dynamic Ip Address

Once you have the DSL modem connected its time to configure your PC. In most cases its already setup to get an ip address automatically. So before doing anything check to see if its already working. If not, then check the following settings. If you have a windows operating system, you need to go to start/settings/control panel, then double click the network icon. You should see your “local area network” device listed in the window. Right mouse click on that icon, and then scroll down until you see Internet Protocol(TCP/IP) and double click. Make sure all setting say obtain automatically. Once these are set click ok. Then check to see that you can browse the internet or get email.